21-241: Lecture Notes

I've fallen a little behind in the lecture notes, but notes through Friday, September 5, are available on the Blackboard site.

21-241: Class Notes

I've posted the notes from Lecture 1 on the Blackboard site. They are in the "Course Content" area. I'll try to get notes written for each lecture, but I can make no promises!

21-241: Fall 2014

Welcome to 21-241 Matrices and Linear Transformations for the Fall 2014 semester. I'll post information and updates about the course on this blog. The main source of information about the course is the Course Home Page, and in particular, the Schedule Page. There is a Balckboard site for the course, which will be used to record your grades, and distribute solutions.

21-270: Final Wrap Up

Well, I've submitted final grades to the SIO site. They should be available to you all now. The Grade Center on the Blackboard site has a column for your "Cumulative Averge," which agrees almost exactly with my spreadsheet. If you have turned in any late assignments this semester, your average on Blackboard will be slightly higher than it ought to be. You can compare your grades for the semester to this page of statistics for the course.

21-241: Final Wrap-Up

Well, I've submitted final grades to the SIO site. They should be available to you all now. The Grade Center on the Blackboard site has a column for your "Cumulative Averge," which agrees almost exactly with my spreadsheet. If you have turned in any late assignments this semester, your average on Blackboard will be slightly higher than it ought to be. You can compare your grades for the semester to this page of statistics for the course.

21-270: Chapter 2

I've posted Chapter 2 of the textbook on the Blackboard site. You can find it by clicking "Course Documents" in the top left pane and following the link there.

21-241: Week #2

The reading and homework assignments for Week #2 have been posted. You can follow the link from the Schedule page. There is a written assignment due Wednesday. I will hold office hours on Tuesday from 5:00-6:30. I will announce my permanent office hours in class on Wednesday.

Chris Potter's office hours

My office hours this week will be in Wean 6201:

Mon 4-6pm
Tue 2-4pm
Wed (none)
Thu 4-5pm

21-260: Week #3 Homework Solutions

... are now available in the Solutions section of the Blackboard site.

21-260: Office Hours

I neglected to mention my office hours in class this morning. Like last week, I'll be holding office hours tomorrow from 2:00-4:00. These will be my regular office hours for the semester. If you need to meet with me outside this time, let me know, and we make arrangements to do that.

21-260: Office Hours

I will be holding office hours tomorrow (Thursday) from 2:00-4:00pm. These may be my permanent office hours, but I'll let you know before long.

21-260: Blackboard Enrollment

I've heard from a few of you about problems accessing the Blackboard site for the course. It seems that only students from Lecture 1 were automatically enrolled. I've asked to have everyone from Lecture 2 added, and I'm told that should happen by the end of the day today. Don't worry, though, as there is really nothing on the Blackboard site yet, other than a link to the 21-260 Web Site.

UPDATE: It appears that all enrolled students have now been added to the Blackboard site. If you are still having problems accessing the site, let me know.

21-260: Waitlists

I've received some messages about waitlists for various sections. For what it's worth there is currently space in sections A and D. Sections B and C have one person each on their waitlists. Section E has no waitlist, but appears to be at it's maximum capacity.

Welcome to 21-260

Welcome to 21-260 Differential Equations. This I'll use this blog to post announcements about the course - when assignments are posted, when solutions become available, changes to office hours, and such. I'll also try to post links to anything I think would be relevant and interesting to you, as a student in the class. For more information about the class, you should check out the 21-260 Web Site.

21-260: Exam #2

Most of you should have your Exam #2's back by now. The grade cutoffs for the second midterm are: A - 80, B - 70, C - 60, D - 40. If you took the makeup exam on Tuesday morning, I have your graded exam, you can get it before or after class tomorrow. I've made the grades available on the Blackboard site.

21-260: Exam Date Changes

As I announced in class yesterday, I've had to move the second and third mid-term exams from their originally scheduled dates. The second mid-term, instead of being the Wednesday after spring break, will be the Friday after spring break, March 23. The third exam, instead of the Monday before spring carnival, will be the Friday after spring carnival, April 27.

I think the new dates will be generally preferable to the original dates, but in case they are not, let me tell you that the alternative would have been to give the exams on the scheduled days at 7:30 in the morning.

21-260: Exam #1

I returned Exam #1 during class yesterday. If you didn't get yours, you can pick it up from your TA during recitation today. The grade cutoffs for the exam are - A:85, B:75, C:65, D:50. These cutoffs are important for two reasons. First, it gives you an idea where you stand, and second, I use them to compute grade cutoffs for your cumulative averages.

Since the grade cutoffs for this exam are the same as for the homework assignments, the grade cutoffs for cumulative averages are the same, too - A:85, B:75, C:65, D:50. I compute the grade cutoffs for cumulative averages by averaging the grade cutoffs the same way I average your grades (i.e. the A cutoff for cumulative averages is the average of the A cutoffs for each assignment).

An important point to note is that, when computing your averages, the difference between, say, an 84 and 85 is only a 1% difference, not a whole letter-grade difference.

I will make your exam grades and cumulative averages available on the blackboard site.

21-260: EXCEL groups

My name is Sharanya Venkat and I will be your EXCEL Leader for
Differential Equations this year. EXCEL is a collaborative learning
program through Academic Development that focuses on providing extra
practice to students in groups of 5-6 people especially in Math and
Science courses. We will be going over key course concepts and doing
practice problems based on what you cover in lecture and your
homeworks.

EXCEL groups meet once a week for one hour, at a time that fits in
with your availability. Requests to join a study group can be made
through the Academic Development Office in Suite B5, Cyert Hall.

I hope to see you soon and good luck with the course!

21-260: Exam #1 Review

I've posted a review page for Exam #1. You can follow the link from the Schedule page.

21-260: Changes to Office Hours

I wanted to let you know about some updates to the schedule of office hours. Zhe Cheng has changed his hours to Tuesdays 2:30-4:30pm, Thursdays 3:30-4:30pm. Jacob Davis has moved his Tuesday office hour to Wednesday 7:00-8:00pm; his Thursday hours remain the same at 6:00-8:00pm.

I announced that my office hours would be Tuesday from 3:15-5:15pm, except on the first Tuesday of each month when a conflict would force me to move them later, to 6:30-8:00pm. This week only, as a result of another conflict, I'll have to move my office hours to Thursday, 2:00-4:00. Sorry for the confusion.